“Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging” (September 22-25, 2013)

full name / name of organization:

Marie Curie Initial Training Network "CoHaB"

contact email:

marlena.tronicke@wwu.de

CALL FOR PAPERS
International Conference ITN CoHaB:
“Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging”
(September 22-25, 2013)

About CoHaB:
The Marie Curie Initial Training Network “Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging” (CoHaB) unites world-leading experts in this field in the conviction that interdisciplinary training as well as international and intersectoral co-operation is key to any productive study of diasporas. Bringing together internationally renowned scholars from different disciplines such as literary and cultural studies, anthropology, sociology and social geography, this ITN has as one of its important objectives to effect a transition in diaspora studies from interdisciplinary to transdisciplinary approaches. Drawing on and fusing different disciplinary models and approaches, CoHaB aims at developing a shared terminology and providing a new understanding of diaspora as an analytical category and lived experience.

CoHaB’s international conference will be held from September 22-25, 2013, at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster, Germany. Papers from all disciplines on the following topic are invited:

“Diasporic Constructions of Home and Belonging”
Our globalised world is shaped by international migration. Large numbers of individuals and often entire groups or even nations are on the move for a wide variety of reasons. This phenomenon creates massive challenges to nation states and civil societies, culturally, economically, and politically, but also creates opportunities and new perspectives in an unprecedented degree. The study of diaspora and migration has therefore evolved into a burgeoning field of research with an urgent practical relevance.
As Khachig Tölölyan argues in his essay “The Contemporary Discourse of Diaspora Studies,” the current focus in diaspora seems to be on the notion of dispersal rather than settlement. Stable concepts of home and belonging have, for a variety of reasons, become the exception rather than the rule. As a result, the traditional focus of diaspora studies needs to be widened by extending it to the diasporic meaning of home — a place generally associated with security and comfort — and the diasporic construction of belonging in our modern time.

Submissions for 20-minute papers may include, but are not restricted to:

Registration:
300 word abstracts should be submitted by 28 February, 2013. For sending in abstracts as well as further information, please contact Marlena Tronicke, M.A. at marlena.tronicke@wwu.de.
Please note there will be a conference fee of 50 Euro.